The SYSTEM (Strengthening Your System to Energize Momentum) Series is designed to help communities more effectively end homelessness by providing various tools that help communities:
- Identify areas where they can make the most meaningful improvements to their systems;
- Continuously execute on those improvements for the greatest impact, and
- Leverage their Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) application for the CoC Program competition to kick-start efforts to build a more effective system.
Please check back regularly, as more resources will be added to this page. And be sure to read more about this effort in a blog by the Alliance’s former Director for the Center for Capacity Building, Cynthia Nagendra.
Preparing for the 2019 CoC Program NOFA
Build an Effective Homeless Response System: Getting Ready for the CoC NOFA
What does an effective homeless response system do? What elements enable a homeless system to make real impacts for people experiencing homelessness? And how can you start thinking about the CoC NOFA as a vehicle to make decisions and investments to achieve such a system?
In this webinar, Alliance experts kick off a new series of webcasts, blogs and resources, all designed to help strengthen your system and prepare for the 2019 CoC NOFA.
Watch and Download ResourcesAdditional Resources:
Getting Aligned with Housing First
Getting Aligned with Housing First
Housing First is among the very most thoroughly established examples of an evidence-based approach to ending homelessness. The following resources can help your system conform to the fundamental principles of Housing First:
Tools:
Housing First Assessment Tool (HUD)
USICH: Housing First Checklist (USICH)
Homeless System Evaluator Tool (National Alliance to End Homelessness)
Stella (HUD)
Reference Guide:
Housing First Fact Sheet
Blogs:
What Housing First Really Means
Why Housing First? Why Not Housing Second? Or Third?
Using Data
Using Data Effectively
CoC data is a fundamental tool for understanding any homelessness system’s performance. The following resources explore how to best understand and leverage CoC data, to guide decisions on program investments and allocations.
READ MORETools:
HUD System Performance Measures Guidance
HUD HMIS Fact Sheet
HUD HMIS Data and Technical Standards
Rapid Re-Housing Performance Benchmarks and Program Standards
Rapid Re-Housing Performance Evaluation and Improvement Toolkit
Resources:
The Demographic Data Project
State of Homelessness Report
State Solutions to Ending Family Homelessness
Reallocating Permanent Supportive Housing (2016)
Blogs:
Visualizing Progress: How Do We Translate Data?
Examining Data: Exploring Unsheltered Family Homelessness
Addressing Racial Disparities Among People Experiencing Homelessness: Start with Data
Webinars:
Build an Effective Homeless Response System: Getting Ready for the Coc NOFA
Addressing Racial Inequities
Addressing Racial Inequities
An effective crisis response system serves all clients equitably, regardless of their race. Use new tools to evaluate your system, identify inequities, and make the necessary adjustments.
READ MORE
Blogs:
Racial Disparities in the Homelessness System: Even the NOFA is Telling Us to Act!
Racial Disparities in the Homeless System: Moving Forward
Addressing Racial Disparities Among People Experiencing Homelessness: Start with Data
Resources:
Alliance Racial Equity Network Toolkit
HUD CoC Analysis Tool on Race and Ethnicity
Research and Interactive Data:
Race and Ethnicity: Demographic Data Project - Research Brief
New Data on Race, Ethnicity and Homelessness - Research Blog
Racial Disparities in Homelessness - Interactive Data Visualization
Racial Disparities in Homelessness - Data Snapshot
Ending Chronic Homelessness
Ending Chronic Homelessness
People experiencing chronic homelessness often face the greatest vulnerabilities and the highest barriers to existing homelessness. But a system that has effectively aligned its resources around outreach, low-barrier shelter, and the appropriate housing programs, is a system that can end chronic homelessness.
Resources
Backgrounder: Who Experiences Chronic Homelessness
Permanent Supportive Housing Evidence-Based Practices (SAMHSA)
Criteria and Benchmark for Achieving the Goal of Ending Chronic Homelessness (USICH)
Ending Chronic Homelessness Among People with Disabilities (USICH)
Supportive Housing 101 (CSH)
Ending Chronic Homelessness Saves Taxpayers Money: A Policy Brief (2017)
Case Studies on Addressing Chronic Homelessness (CSH)
Toolkits
PHA Toolkit for Supportive Housing (CSH)
Supportive Housing Quality Toolkit (CSH)
CSH Moving On Toolkit (CSH)
Blog Posts
What Gets Measured Gets Managed
Addressing Chronic Homelessness: What the Research Tells Us
How Your Community Can Apply for New ‘Mainstream’ Housing Vouchers from HUD
Defining What It Means to End Chronic Homelessness – We Now Have a Clear Goal (2016)
Video
Webinar: Taking Advantage of 811 Mainstream Vouchers - Leveraging Partnerships with Your PHAs
Data/Research
Chronic Homelessness: A Research Brief (Abt Associates)
Emergency Shelters Are Serving an Increasingly Vulnerable Population: A Data Snapshot
Matching Permanent Supportive Housing to the Most Vulnerable: A State-by-State Snapshot